But, alas! Cissy Carter _was_ a goose! In the well-meant telegram she
saw only a new machination of the enemy--perhaps even of Elizabeth
Fortinbras. And the heart in the Boulevard d'Argenson became, for the
moment, sadder than ever. Also Madame asked for an explanation in a tone
to which the proud little daughter of Colonel Davenant Carter had been
quite unaccustomed. She resented Madame Rolly's interference rather more
sharply than wisely. Whereupon she was told that her father would be
requested to remove her, if, on the morrow, she was not ready with an
explanation, in addition to the apology which Madame, perhaps correctly,
considered her due.
Now it chanced that Colonel Carter, finding himself with a week-end to
spare in London, had crossed the Channel to give himself the treat (and
his daughter the surprise) of dropping in upon her unexpectedly. He
could not have come more to the purpose so far as that daughter was
concerned. Or more malapropos from the point of view of Madame Rolly.
As many people know, the good Colonel, once the devoted slave of Sir
Toady Lion, was occasionally exceedingly peppery. And when he arrived
with his pockets bulging with good things, only to find "his little
girl" in tears--and, indeed, brought hastily down from the room in which
she had been locked--his military ardor exploded.
"If, Madame," he is reported to have said, "I am to understand
that you cannot keep discipline without having resort to methods
more suitable to a boy of eight than to a young lady of eighteen,
it is time that I undertook the responsibility myself! Cecilia, go
up to your room. I will settle with Madame. And by the time that
is done--the--ah--baggage-cart will be at the door--as sure
as my name is G-rrrrrumph--G-rrrumph--G-rrrummph!"
And, indeed, the "baggage-cart" (in the shape of a small omnibus) was at
the door. Although really, you know, the Colonel's name was not as he
himself affirmed.
"And now, Missy," growled the Colonel in his finest
Full-Bench-of-Justices manner, "kindly tell me what you have been
doing!"
For, very characteristically, the Colonel, though entirely declining to
listen to a word of accusation against his daughter from Madame Rolly,
reserved to himself the right of distributing an even-handed justice
afterwards. His method on such occasions is just the reverse of
father's, as we have all learned to our cost. Our father would have
listened gravely to all that Madame had to recount of our misdeeds. Then
he would have nodded, remarked, "You did perfectly right, Madame! In
anything that you may propose, I will support you--so long, that is, as
I judge it best that my child shall remain at your school!" For father's
first principle in all such matters is, "Support authority--receive or
make no complaints--and, above all, work out your own salvation, my
young friend!"
And though it sometimes looks a bit hard at the time, as Hugh John says,
"It prepares a fellow for taking his own part in the world, as you soon
find you have jolly well to do if you mean to get on."
But Cissy knew her father, and promptly set herself to cry as
heartbrokenly as she could manage on such short notice. Colonel
Davenant Carter gazed at her a moment with a haughty and defiant
expression. But as Toady Lion had once said of him, "I teached him to
come the High Horsicle wif ME!" So now, as the rickety omnibus jogged
and swayed over the Parisian cobbles, Cissy wept ever more bitterly,
till the old soldier had to entreat her to stop. They would, so it
appeared, soon be at his hotel. Even now they were passing his club, and
"that old gossiping beast, Repton Reeves," was at the window. If it got
about that he, Colonel Davenant Carter, had been seen driving down the
Rue de Rivoli with a damsel drowned in floods of tears--why, by all the
bugles of Balaclava, he would never hear the end of it. He might as well
resign at the club. All which, as Cissy sobbed out in the French
language, was "exceedingly equal" to her! But it was very far indeed
from being "egal" to the peppery Colonel. And at last, as the sobs
increased in carry and volume, he was reduced to the ignominious
expedient of personal bribery.
"Look here, Cissy," he said in tremulous tones, "we absolutely _can't_
go into the courtyard of the Grand Hotel like this! Now, if you will be
a good girl, and will stop this instant, I will drive you up the Rue de
la Paix, and there I will buy----!"
"_What?_" said Cissy, looking up with eyes that still brimmed ready for
action.
"A gold bracelet!" said her father tentatively, but still quite
uncertain of his effect.
"Boohoo!" said Cissy Carter, dropping her face once more between her
hands.
"Goodness gracious," cried the Colonel, invoking his favorite divinity,
"what can the girl want? A gold watch, then?"
"Real gold this time, then!" said Cissy, who had been "had" once before,
and, even with an aching heart, was properly cautious.
"You shall do the choosing yourself!" said her father, thinking that he
had conquered. But Cissy knew her opportunity--and the relative whom
fate had given her. The tears welled again. Her bosom was shaken by
timely sobs.
"Well, what then, Celia--really, this becomes past bearing! Why, we are
nearly at the hotel!"
Cissy glanced up quickly. "A gold bracelet _with_ a gold watch, then!"
she sighed gently.
And this is the truth, and the whole truth, as to why Colonel Davenant
Carter gave his arm to a radiant and beautiful daughter in the courtyard
of the Grand Hotel--a daughter, also, who lifted up a prettily-gloved
hand (twelve buttons), and at every fourth step _looked at the time_!